What are 3 examples of a personification?

Personification is a poetic literary device in which non-living things are given human traits. The most common example of personification is when we describe the wind as blowing, or the sun is shining. In this example, the nonliving object (the wind or the sun) is being described as if it were alive and could act on its own accord. Personification allows writers to create life and motion within inanimate objects, animals, and even abstract ideas by assigning them recognizable human behaviors and emotions. Greek mythology is the relevant example of personifications.

Must Read: How to Improve English Vocabulary?

This Blog Includes:

What is Personification?

Personification examples can be found everywhere, from film to prose to poetry. For example, think about how often you hear someone say that “the rain feels so good on my skin” or that “I love the smell of fresh snow.”

The personification definition we have established so far is pretty basic, but what makes it a literary device? Writers use it to achieve different effects. Some writers use it to add colour and imagery to their text while others use it to imbue objects with human attributes. The point of using personification is to help the reader better visualize certain elements of the story or poem.

Why Do Writers Use Personification?

Telling a story with no personification can be difficult because it’s hard for readers to relate without ascribing human qualities to the characters and objects in your tale. When you use personification, you give everything in your story a sense of character and identity. Even if you don’t want everything in your story to be humanized, bringing inanimate objects and characters to life through personification can make them richer and more relatable.

In modern literature, personification examples are often found in descriptive language. Writers use this tool to deliver a more vivid image of a subject or setting by adding human qualities like emotions and motivations. By doing so, authors are able to paint a picture that is more compelling than just delivering facts or providing a plain description of something. Let’s look at some examples of how this literary device works in common phrases and sentences:

“The sun was shining on the beach.” which implies ‘the sun smiled down on the earth’.

This technique is used in both prose and poetry. In fact, the roots of personification can be found in ancient literature. It has been used for thousands of years to help writers describe fantasy creatures like mermaids and dragons.

Also Read: Examples of Simile

What is the Purpose of Using Personification?

Personification is a literary device that uses human qualities to describe nonhuman things. Personification may be used to:

• Describe objects and ideas in terms of human characteristics, behavior, and emotions.To describe something or someone clearly by using metaphors, similes, and figurative language.
• Create a more vivid depiction of reality by adding sensory details that relate to the five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing).To give voice to inanimate or abstract things with human emotions and thoughts. To make the audience relate to a person or thing better (by putting themselves in the shoes of that thing or person).
• Help the reader make a deeper connection with the story by creating human qualities for inanimate objects (such as stars in the night sky) or animals (such as bears). To make a story more interesting by adding details and description through personification.
• Illustrate a setting by describing various elements including weather and the setting itself.

Personification is a technique that is frequently used in literature, and it’s one that can add a lot of personality to your writing. The basic idea behind personification is that you take an object or animal and give it human qualities, such as emotions or thoughts.

For example, instead of just describing the wind as blowing, you might describe it as “breathing” across your face. When you do this, you’re personifying the wind. You’re making it seem like a living thing.

Personifying an object means figuratively describing it with human traits in order to craft a vivid image of that object in your reader’s mind. While describing your couch as brown or corduroy shows the reader what the couch literally looks like, describing it as forgiving gives the reader a strong sense of what it feels like to sit on that couch.

Write confidently

Grammarly helps give your writing extra polish

What is personification?

Personification is one of the many literary devices writers use to make their writing more engaging. Other common literary devices include synecdoches, metaphor, and onomatopoeia. With personification, you emphasize a non-human’s characteristics by describing them with human attributes. That non-human can be an object, an animal, or even an idea or a concept. Here are a few personification examples:

• She sat down at the tired, overworked desk. 
• Coming home from the lake empty-handed, I figured the fish colluded to avoid me.
• The child’s stare begged me to take him out for ice cream even though I’d already said no.

Personification isn’t limited to one part of speech or type of phrase. You might come across personification expressed as a verb, an adjective, or even a whole phrase. Take a look at some of the different ways you can work personification into your writing: 

• The image of a cozy hammock on a tropical beach spoke enticingly to him. 
• The perfectly sun-kissed strawberries were calling my name, so I bought them to go with dessert.
• More birds joined the chorus, turning the sparrow’s solo into an ensemble performance. 

Writers frequently use personification in conjunction with other literary devices. Here are a few pairings, with the personification bolded and the other literary device italicized:

• “Meow,” the cat explained, arguing why I should give her another treat. (“Meow” is onomatopoeia.)
• Their paintbrush was their teacher and, like a teacher, guided them through the challenges they faced on the canvas. (“Like a teacher” is a simile.)
• The courthouse stood tall, looming over them as they waited outside for their trial to begin. (In this example, “stood tall, looming over them” is both personification and symbolism, with the courthouse’s imposing appearance symbolizing the government’s power.)

Why is personification used?

When you personify an object, animal, or anything else that’s not human in your writing, you make that “thing” feel more human. By humanizing a non-human through personification, you can do several things:

• Make it easier for readers to empathize with it
• Make a human character’s relationship with the non-human clearer to readers
• Make it easier for the reader to empathize with the human characters in the story
• Demonstrate the non-human’s role in the story more clearly

And, personification is fun! It livens up dramatic and narrative writing through engaging figurative language. 

Although writers use personification in all kinds of creative writing, you’re most likely to come across it in children’s stories. A big part of this is that kids’ stories tend to feature animals and objects, rather than people, as the characters. 

History of personification

Personification has existed for millennia. For just about as long as people have been telling stories, we’ve been using personification to make the concepts in those stories more relatable. 

One early writer to discuss personification, then referred to as prosopopoeia, was an ancient Athenian orator named Demetrius of Phalerum. At the time of his writing, prosopopoeia was a well-established literary device and could be found in a variety of works.

Early examples of personification include images of Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory personified, on Roman coins and architecture. Personification was used widely in ancient Rome, with virtues and specific Roman cities personified on coins and in art. 

Other early examples of personification, specifically in a literary context, include the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse featured in the Bible. In Revelations, a book describing the events of the Apocalypse, the divine’s punishments for the people on Earth are personified as four men riding on horseback, bringing various tragedies to the world. 

Throughout the following centuries, cultures around the world continued to use personification and allegory to communicate important ideas through stories and symbolism. One relatively recent historical example is Bharat Mata, the personification of India as a goddess. This personified figure has roots in the nineteenth century and gained popularity through the Indian Independence movement. Bharat Mata is just one of the personified national figures depicted in art and used to symbolize cultural movements. Others include Uncle Sam, the Merlion, and Britannia. 

Examples of personification

You’ve encountered personification in a variety of settings. You’ve probably used it before in your speech and writing, even if you weren’t familiar with the term “personification.” If you’ve ever said something to the effect of “the computer doesn’t want to cooperate,” you’ve used personification. 

We’ve used personification a bunch on the blog, too. Here are a few examples we’ve used in the past: 

• “The heart wants what it wants—or else it does not care . . .” —Emily Dickinson. (See  Literary Devices: The Ultimate Guide.)
• The clock glared at me menacingly. (See The Ultimate Guide to Phrases.)
• It was a joyful bouquet. Each flower had a distinct, vibrant face, and together, they were a happy choir of enthusiastic friends, ready to break into song at any moment. (See How to Take Descriptive Writing to the Next Level.)

You’ve also encountered personification in literature and poetry. Here are a few famous examples:

• “Blackberries . . . I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.

They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle, flattening their sides.” —“Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath

• “There is something subversive about this garden of Serena’s. . . . . It breathes, in the warmth, breathing itself in.”  —The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

There are many examples in popular music as well:

• “Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died?” —American Pie by Don McLean 
• “You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes.” —Thriller by Michael Jackson 

And it shows up a lot in everyday phrases and expressions:

• The city that never sleeps.
• Howling wind
• Actions speak louder than words. 

If you’ve ever watched a cartoon and seen an object briefly “come to life” in order to illustrate its characteristics or relationship to a character, you’ve seen animated personification. Take a look at this example from The Simpsons. 

What is the difference between personification and anthropomorphism?

When you watch an animated film starring talking animals, you’re seeing personification in action, right?

Actually, no. What you’re watching is an example of anthropomorphism.

Anthropomorphism is a non-human character behaving in a human-like way. For example, Mickey Mouse is an anthropomorphic mouse. Spongebob Squarepants is an anthropomorphic sponge. 

In contrast, personification is brief, generally an isolated action or description, and serves to provide a description or add dramatic or poetic effect. The titular raven in Poe’s poem The Raven is personified, not anthropomorphized, because the poem’s narrator is the one assigning it humanlike traits by “hearing” its speech, rather than the raven itself being a talking bird. 

Basically, if the humanlike traits are figurative, it’s personification. If they’re literal—like Tony the Tiger saying “They’re grrrrreat!”—it’s anthropomorphism. 

Personification FAQs

What is personification?

Personification is a type of metaphor that describes non-humans’ looks, actions, and purposes with language typically reserved for human characters. 

What is an example of personification?

• That bike just wouldn’t quit.
• I could feel the crows snickering, mocking me, for bringing such an underwhelming gift. 
• We loved our house, but our house didn’t love us back. 

Is personification figurative language?

Yes. 

Are personification and anthropomorphism the same?

No. Personification uses figurative language to illustrate a scene or show us a character’s perspective:

• The church bell sang loud and clear across the sky.
• My pen fought back, determined not to give up any of its ink when I needed it most. 
• Every plant in the garden stood at attention, awaiting the next command from the sun. 

Anthropomorphism is a non-human character behaving in a human-like way. This can mean wearing clothing, speaking, or doing actions typically associated with human beings. For example, the speaking (and sometimes singing and dancing) clock, candleholder, teapot, and the like in Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast are a cast of anthropomorphic objects. 

Express yourself through original writing

Grammar mistakes can undermine your writing in a lot of ways. No matter how original your ideas are or how compelling your story is, mistakes can misconstrue your meaning and consequently take readers out of your story and keep them from finishing it. 

Don’t let that happen to your work. When it’s time to edit your first draft, Grammarly can catch any mistakes you might’ve missed and offer suggestions to make your writing stronger. 

What are 5 examples of personification?

What is personification write 1 example?

What is personification give two examples?

What are personification words?